This has to rank as one of the most profoundly stupid things I've ever seen an HN user utter.
Maybe there was a 'reason'; maybe Anna was shy, or overweight, or interested in unusual things. Or maybe not; either way, it's totally irrelevant.
ugh. just fucking ugh.
OK. I got the crap bullied out of me in school. You know why? Because I was nice. and because I was different.
When I was around 14 I had to move schools because I was too terrified to go in. I was a boy, but I liked having long hair, so of course that was a huge vector for bullying, amongst other things. One time I even got chased around a classroom by someone trying to cut my hair off with scissors.
Don't ever fucking try to fucking justify or contextualise bullying in a way that blames the victim.
See also: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
Once you get to high school, your grades actually matter for deciding the course of your life, so all of a sudden you have to try in school if you want to get into a good college. Three consequences: kids have less energy to waste during school hours, they actually have a goal (however meaningless) to work towards, and being a good student becomes cool (as long as you meet some baseline level of attractiveness and social skills) because (in an ideal world) it means you have a brighter future ahead of you than flipping burgers at McDonald's. At this point, most kids just want to focus on their "work" and enjoy their remaining time with friends, not trying to inch their way up a pecking order. The exceptions were the kids that knew they had special privileges (football players and cheerleaders with rich daddies), and the poor kids with the worst grades that knew their futures were bleak.
It pains me to say it, as a slacker that hated the "school" part of school much more than the social interaction, but maybe making grades "matter" earlier on would improve the quality of social interaction in middle school. I don't think that's worth wasting more years of the lives of children, though.
Two other non-age related factors: American middle schools encourage microcosms to form by generally being smaller than high schools, and by having tighter-knit class units (at least in my school, you stuck with the same kids for everything except electives). Among the first things I thought when I started high school was "there is no way I could ever meet all of these people," later followed by the realization that no one else gave a shit about strangers anymore either.
"They don't just bully a random dude/gal." - of course, the more vulnerable the better!
1. Different (out of community, different religion etc.)
2. Not good with words (doesn't reply back)
I was in category 2 and a few bullies always made fun of me because of this. I was called names and humiliated for no reason.
IMHO, they don't need a reason. Just someone to make fun of.
> But I seriously cannot believe this if there is not a
> single reason WHY they did such horrible things
Imagine asking this about the Holocaust.
"I seriously cannot believe this if there is not a single reason WHY they did such horrible things"
Imagine asking this about slavery.
"I seriously cannot believe this if there is not a single reason WHY they did such horrible things"
Imagine asking that from a little girl who is tortured psychologically every day for years.
There are reasons, but to a warped mind, cutting someone in a line is enough for death by hanging. I mean Ted Bundy probably had some reason for doing the things he did - maybe a girl dumped him so he decided to take revenge (on other girls).
It could have been nothing else than just wanting to rise up the ranks and enjoying the abuse way too much.